https://cbi.iq/news/view/528
His Excellency the Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq, Ali Mohsen Ismail, preside a financial and banking delegation to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia upon the invitation of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.The delegation will discuss the prospects of cooperation between the two countries, especially regarding the development of banking relations between Riyadh and Baghdad and the creation of investment opportunities between the two countries.
the pace quickens
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The Federal Foreign Office of Germany has generously donated EUR 30 million (USD 34.8 million) to the Iraq Humanitarian Fund (IHF), a pooled fund led by the Humanitarian Coordinator and managed by OCHA.
“We are deeply grateful to the German Government and the German people for this very generous contribution,” said the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Ms. Lise Grande (pictured).
The German Government has already channelled USD 10.9 million to the IHF, bringing Germany’s total contribution for the year to the pooled fund to USD 45.7 million.
“The pooled fund is the backbone of the humanitarian operation in Iraq,” said Ms. Grande. “More than 125 projects targeting 4.2 million Iraqis in nine governorates have received funding through the IHF in 2017 alone.”
“The military campaign against ISIL is over, but the humanitarian crisis is not,” said Ms. Grande.
“More than 3.3 million Iraqis are displaced–hundreds of thousands are living in camps and improvised shelters. They need help.”
The IHF has provided more than USD 70 million to front-line partners in support the Mosul humanitarian operation. In October 2017, USD 14 million was allocated for the Hawiga operation. “Millions of Iraqis have suffered terribly,” said Ms. Grande.
“Our top priority now is to help ensure that people who need help receive it. In the months ahead we will be working closely with the Government so that people are able to return to their homes safely, voluntarily and in dignity.’
(Source: OCHA)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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By John Lee.
Iraq has been ranked 168th out of 190 countries in the World Bank‘s recent Doing Business 2018 report, down from 165th place the previous year.
Despite the fall in the rankings, the report notes that over the previous year Iraq simplified the process of starting a business by combining multiple registration procedures and reducing the time to register a company, and it launched a new credit registry, improving access to credit information.
Top of the list were New Zealand,*Singapore and Denmark, with last place going to Somalia, just behind Eritrea and Venezuela. Iran ranked 124th, with Libya 185th.
Doing Business measures regulations affecting 11 areas of the life of a business. Ten of these areas are included in this year’s ranking on the ease of doing business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting minority investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. Doing Business also measures labor market regulation, which is not included in this year’s ranking.
(Source: World Bank)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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By John Lee.
Private investors from Iraq and Turkey have reportedly held preliminary negotiations with Iran to expand and modernize its fuel stations.
According to a report from Petrol Plaza, there are 3,600 fuel stations and 2,400 compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in Iran which need renovation and investment.
To date, more than 250 state-controlled fuel stations have been privatized in the country.
(Source: Petrol Plaza)
(Picture credit: Asadi S)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.
Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Reforming and Transforming SOMOThis analysis was presented via Skype Conference to the management and staff of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) on 12th December 2017:
Please click here to download the presentation.
Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad’s biography here.
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani inaugurated the new building of Kurdistan Institute of Public Administration (KIPA) on Tuesday.
In a speech, Prime Minister Barzani stated, he hopes that KIPA “will continue to work diligently to provide the much needed services of building the capacities of Kurdistan Regional Government’s civil servants.”
Below is the transcript of Mr. Barzani’s speech:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good Morning.* I would like to welcome you all to this ceremony of inaugurating the new building of Kurdistan Institute of Public Administration (KIPA). I would like to specially welcome the Republic of Korea’s Ambassador to Iraq Mr. Song Wong-Yeob, Korean Consul General in the Kurdistan Region and the Head of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in Baghdad. I especially welcome Professor Park who came from Seoul specifically to this occasion and I welcome you all again.
Today, human resources’ development is important for change and progress in all sectors and major fields, especially in the fields of governance and administration. Capacity building and Development is key to the development of Administrative, economic, social and cultural sectors.
Competency and capacity are very important for human resources. One of the main pillars of human resources’ development is training. That is equipping the staff member with up-to-date information and more knowledge about their field of work. Information and knowledge get updated continuously. In order to enable the KRG institutions and their staff to cope with the progress in all fields, especially good governance, the KRG should make training and capacity building part of its human resources development strategy.
Therefore, all technical, material and moral necessities should be made available for this purpose and all parties and individuals should be urged to adhere to implement the directives and instructions related to capacity building and training. And this is, again, for the purpose of developing the civil service in administrative, technical and theoretical areas based on modern principles.
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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Perhaps time was needed for not-so-secret combinations to position the 9 trillion USD "lost" from the FED...possibly first buried in those foreign currency reserves sent to all the Central Banks by Bush and then fast forwarded..like, on steroids to friendly players by O-bla-bla?
Now that it's all been laundered into clean, crisp new dinar, the swamp rats can bring this latest and probably largest ever single heist to a conclusion and make Earth-changing, astronomical profits.
9 Trillion USD buys ?X? dinar...multiplied by an RV (not lop) and the big boys can finally let the Dollar, the USA and 90% of her people crash and burn. While the carnage ensues, they will be free and clear of it, sitting poolside in some Dubai high-rise owning the world's most stable new currency (ALL of it) from money they stole from us 'fair & square' because we didn't stop them.
As the dust settles, they can come back to clean up the mess in America (costing chump change), convert the survivors into obedient (read unarmed) slaves or soilant green and start the whole game over again.
....I think it's time for my medication..ahhhhhh, nice..zzzzzzz

U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria over the last three days, conducting 14 strikes consisting of 27 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported yesterday.
Officials reported details of the most recent strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.
Strikes in Syria
On Dec. 8 in Syria, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of three engagements against ISIS targets near Abu Kamal. The strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a tactical vehicle and a fighting position.
On Dec. 9 in Syria, coalition military forces conducted three strikes consisting of five engagements against ISIS targets:
Near Abu Kamal, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed an ISIS vehicle and an ISIS line of communication.
Near Shadaddi, a strike engaged an ISIS mortar team.
On Dec. 10 in Syria, coalition military forces conducted eight strikes consisting of 13 engagements against ISIS targets near Abu Kamal. The strikes engaged eight ISIS tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions, a mortar system, a tactical vehicle and an ISIS headquarters.
Strike in Iraq
On Dec. 9 in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted a strike consisting of six engagements against ISIS targets near Tuz. The strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed an ISIS truck.
Part of Operation Inherent Resolve
These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group’s ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.
The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.
Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.
For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.
The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.
(Source: US Dept of Defense)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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By John Lee.
The Institute for the Study of War has issued a new report — Iraqi Security Forces and Popular Mobilization Forces: Orders of Battle — in which it claimes that the liberation Daesh’s urban holdings in Iraq was necessary but not sufficient to secure America’s vital national interests.
It says ISIS has lost neither the will nor the capability to fight, even as it withdraws into desert hideouts and sleeper cell formations in November 2017.
Rather, dispersed ISIS militants have begun an insurgent campaign in northern and western Iraq as some of its foreign fighters have returned to their home countries to serve in ISIS’s external operations network.
The report includes considerable detail on the various players and agencies involved in security in Iraq.
Click here to download the full report.
(Source: Institute for the Study of War)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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By John Lee.
Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi has hosted a meeting in Baghdad with the French Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, confirming the significance of the economic and financial relations between the two countries.
Both sides expressed hopes for major cooperation in all sectors, including oil, industrial, agricultural, commercial, transportation, and housing.
Mr. Lemoyne said that he saw a keenness from the Iraqi side to encourage and invite the French companies to invest in Iraq.
(Source: Office of the Iraqi Prime Minister)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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By John Lee.
The state-owned Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) has said that it has recouped its $2.49 billion investment in the Zubair oil field in southern Iraq.
According to a report from Yonhap, the company has recovered $2.53 million as of December, which exceeds its initial outlay.
The oilfield is currently producing around 360,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
The project primarily involves the drilling of more than 200 wells, the construction of treatment and storage facilities and refurbishment of the existing facilities.
(Source: Yonhap)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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Wrong again it's a collection of person's and countries Not the IMF per say!
http://www.imf.org/en/About/Factsheets/Sheets/2016/07/27/15/24/How-the-IMF-Makes-Decisions
https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/eds.aspx
https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/memdir/members.aspx
EB

That's the point. Banks that access SDRs from the IMF can't unilaterally decide to change the rate in a major way without IMF approval, or they lose access to that facility. Unlike you, I did look it up. The French had to learn that back in the day, and long ago I posted the exact batch of press releases that went out in 1947, when about 16 countries made major changes to the value of their currencies over a 4 day span.(also a post war period, I know you're to slow to catch that) Each one states clearly "The Central Bank requests, and THE FUND CONCURS". Without IMF buy in, it didn't happen. France at another time unilaterally made such a change, and lost access to the SDR facility for a period of time. Good try, but you should know by now, I do my research... The press releases are in my initial thread, look it up.
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Most any banks that access

Iraq boosts output capacity at Kirkuk oil refinery
12/11/2017
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq's Oil Ministry has added a new processing unit to the Kirkuk oil refinery, increasing the plant’s capacity to 56,000 bpd, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The new production unit can process 13,000 bpd of crude, the statement said, citing Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi.
The new upgraded production capacity will meet most of the domestic need of the northern oil city of Kirkuk and nearby provinces and "save hard currency as a result of cutting fuel imports," it said.
Iraq is working to divert most future output from Kirkuk oilfield to local refineries due to an ongoing conflict with Kurdish regional authorities over the use of an export pipeline to Turkey.
Production from Kirkuk stopped in mid-October after Iraqi forces dislodged Kurdish fighters and took over the northern region’s oilfields.
Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; editing by Jason Neely

Looks to be mirroring the SDR.
Most CB's have SDR.............look it up!
http://www.imf.org/en/About/Factsheets/Sheets/2016/08/01/14/51/Special-Drawing-Right-SDR
The respective weights of the US dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, and British pound sterling are 41.73 percent, 30.93 percent, 10.92 percent, 8.33 percent, and 8.09 percent. These weights were used to determine the amounts of each of the five currencies included in the new SDR valuation basket that took effect on October 1, 2016. These currency amounts will remain fixed over the five-year SDR valuation period (see daily SDR valuation). Since currency amounts are fixed, the relative weight of currencies in the SDR basket can change during a valuation period, with weights rising (falling) for the currencies that appreciate (depreciate) relative to other currencies over time.
The next review is currently scheduled to take place by September 30, 2021, unless an earlier review is warranted by developments in the interim.
Sorry to be a killjoy!
They are just using a basket of currencies to measure the value instead of one currency.
EB

I feel better knowing it's not only me, thanks James. My email this morning was read right away so hopefully problem will be fixed today. For a long time my email trying to get my password renewed were not even read.
That said it's been alost 2 years since this thread was started about Warka being approved to provide all services....

been trying for a new passwod since 1st week of november. Finally got a response this morning and it didn't work! They sent me another password and now I get an error message saying there was an error while submitting and to try again later. Sent them a jpg of the error message but no fix yet. I deleted all my cookies on pc but nada
Will send another email around 11am Iraq time as that seems to be when the look at emails.

I sent an email Sunday (yesterday) and received my online access this morning. (In less than 24hrs) For some reason the password I was using wasn't correct. Anyway I was sent my temporary password this morning.

From Al Jazeera. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
In 2014, ISIL announced it was taking over nearly all of Iraq and Syria.
But three years later and billions lost, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi says his military has defeated the armed group.
It’s been a long road to get to this point. The battle for Mosul alone took months. Almost a million people had to flee, and thousands left behind were killed.
More than eight thousand homes were reportedly destroyed. And that was just one of several Iraqi cities once controlled by ISIL.
What does this mean for Iraq’s future?
Presenter:
Sami Zeidan
Guests:
Ali Al Dabbagh – Former Spokesman for the Iraqi Government
Tallha Abdulrazaq – Researcher at the University of Exeter’s Strategy and Security Institute
Ahmed Rushdi – Adviser to the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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The UN Security Council announced on Friday that all the measures imposed in its resolutions*1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter*VII of the Charter of the United Nations in relation to the Iraq oil-for-food programme had been fully implemented.
Unanimously adopting resolution*2390 (2017), the Council welcomed the fact that the remaining funds in the escrow accounts established pursuant to resolution*1958 (2010) had been transferred to the Government of Iraq pursuant to resolution 2335*(2016).
The Council acknowledged the Secretary-General’s final report on the matter (document*S/2017/820), which stated, among other things, that the remaining $14,283,565 in the administrative escrow account had been transferred to Iraq.
Following the adoption, Amy Noel Tachco (United States) applauded Iraq’s complete implementation of measures under the oil-for-food programme, although the country still faced many challenges.* She looked forward to close cooperation internationally and bilaterally in support of Iraq as a federal, democratic and prosperous country.
Resolution
The full text of resolution*2390 (2017) reads as follows:
“The Security Council,
“Recalling its resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016),
“Acknowledging receipt of the final report of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraph 4 of Security Council resolution 2335 (2016), S/2017/820,
“1.** Welcomes the implementing arrangements entered into by the Secretary-General and the Government of Iraq as requested in paragraph 7 of Security Council resolution 1958 (2010);
“2.** Also welcomes that the remaining funds in the escrow accounts established pursuant to paragraphs 3–5 of Security Council resolution 1958 (2010) have been transferred to the Government of Iraq pursuant to Security Council resolution 2335 (2016);
“3.** Concludes that all the measures imposed by the Security Council in resolutions 1958 (2010) and 2335 (2016) pursuant to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations have been fully implemented by the parties.”
(Source: UN)
Source: Iraq-BusinessNews.com.
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